Monday, February 28, 2005

Vladimir Putin, CBS News Loyalist

From Time.com, news that the Russian President has been drinking the Kool-Aid:

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says a senior Administration official. "It was like something out of 1984."

The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides. (At a past summit, according to Administration aides, Putin asked Bush whether it was true that chicken producers split their production into plants that serve the U.S. and lower-quality ones that process substandard chicken for Russia.)


That this guy is a ignorant as your typical liberal isn't too surprising, but when you consider he used to be head of the KGB, it makes you wonder wassup wit' dat?

Friday, February 25, 2005

Chris Rock vs. the Oscars

Much gnashing of teeth over his hosting what's sure to be an anti-climatic show on Sunday, but there's a good piece at Slate that touches on the fact that while everyone's attacking Drudge, they're totally missing that Rock has more non-liberal values in his material than they probably want to admit:

Far from an encomium to fetus killing, Rock's abortion bit is an attack on women for the frivolous manner in which they decide whether or not to keep a child. "When a woman gets pregnant, it's a choice between the woman"—here Rock pauses, a mischievous grin barely restrained—"and her girlfriends." From there: "One girlfriend goes, 'Child, you should have that baby—that man got some good hair…' And the other girlfriend says, 'Child, why we even talking about this—ain't we supposed to go to Cancun next week? Get rid of that baby!' " And that, Rock says, "is how life is decided in America."

The assumption is that women who get abortions are frivolous and irresponsible rather than poor and desperate, as a liberal might have it. Not much there to offend a conservative's sensibilities. Though Drudge claims the academy "went to the gutter" by picking Rock, where it actually went was to the right. Rock may speak the irreverent language of blue comedy, but more often than not, his ideas are red-state red.

Take, for instance, the opening numbers in Bigger & Blacker, the HBO special Rock did in 1999. He begins with a discussion of the Columbine shootings, then recent, dismissing attempts to examine the shooters' psychology. "What ever happened to crazy?" he demands. He next turns to gun control, which he's against, and single mothers, whom he also doesn't like. "If a kid calls his grandma 'mama' and his mama 'Pam,' he's going to jail," Rock explains. To all the women who leave their kids at home so they can pop some bubbly at the club, Rock has this advice: "Go take care of those kids before they rob me in 10 years."

Sub a few $10 words for some F bombs, and this material could almost have come out of the hallowed jowls of William F. Buckley Jr. Obviously not all of Rock's material has this bent—no decent comedian would limit himself to ribbing one side of the aisle. Rock has joked that joining a political party is like joining a gang; of his own political beliefs, he says on crime he's conservative, on prostitution he's liberal. But at bottom, there's no denying the right-leaning strain underlying his social commentary. Even his economic outlook is Republican: Black people, he says, would do well to take their money out of rims and put it into stocks.


This is the same thing you see on "South Park" - satiric outrage at political correctness, etc. wrapped up in shock tactic paper.

What I'm currently lusting for...



8 MP, many of the features of the EOS 20D and <$1K. Neat.

Please pass the ...BASEBALL BAT!!!

Those merciless killjoys at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (aka "the don't eat that, don't drink that, don't smoke that, stop having fun folks") have decided that the government needs to drop what they're already doing badly and start regulating salt as a food additive. Here's the bit that sells the whole:

A consumer group sued the federal government Thursday, saying that salt is killing tens of thousands of Americans and that regulators have done too little to control salt in food.

"If we could reduce the sodium in processed and restaurant foods by half, we could save about 150,000 lives per year," he said.


And if I was Angelina Jolie's Love Slave, I wouldn't care about much stuff like this, either.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Rappers and Bloggers - Separated at birth!

Yeesh...you wouldn't believe the backlog of stuff that hasn't gotten posted, but, oh well, boofriggedyhoo...

What we got is a quickie called Rappers and Bloggers - Separated at birth! by Josh Levin at Slate. While it's not a 1:1 analogy, there's some interesting thoughts, like...

And don't forget those silly, silly names. Even if he didn't flaunt his devotion to pimping and pit bulls, you'd probably guess Snoop Dogg is a rapper. And Fedlawyerguy—yeah, probably a blogger. But the "blogger or rapper?" parlor game can stump even the nerdiest gangsta. Does uggabugga hate on wack emcees or wack Charles Krauthammer? What about Mad Kane? Big Noyd, Justus League, Uppity Negro, Little Brother, Cold Fury, and South Knox Bubba? (Answers: blogger, blogger, rapper, rap group, blogger, rap group, blogger, blogger.)

Essentially, blogging is sampling plus a new riff. Political bloggers take a story in the news, rip out a few chunks, and type out a few comments. Rap songs use the same recipe: Dig through a crate of records, slice out a high hat and a bass line, and lay a new vocal track on top. Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people's research and other people's chord progressions. But in newspaper writing and rock music, the end goal is the appearance of originality—to make the product look seamless by hiding your many small thefts. For rappers and bloggers, each theft is worth celebrating, another loose item to slap onto the collage.

Rap music and blogging are populist, low-cost-of-entry communication forms that reward self-obsessed types who love writing in first person. Maybe that's why both won so many converts so quickly. If you want to become MC I'm Good at Rapping, all you have to do is rustle up a microphone and a sampler. If you want to blog as AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom, bring a computer, an Internet connection, a working knowledge of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, and a whole lot of spare time.


In the words of Instapundit (where I saw this), "Read it all."

Friday, February 18, 2005

Micro$oft's Guide To Computer Slang

This is actually for real.

While it's important to respect your children's privacy, understanding what your teenager's online slang means and how to decipher it is important as you help guide their online experience. While it has many nicknames, information-age slang is commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Leet (a vernacular form of "elite") is a specific type of computer slang where a user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically—creating the digital equivalent of pig Latin with a twist of hieroglyphics.

Leet words can be expressed in hundreds of ways using different substitutions and combinations, but once one understands that nearly all characters are formed as phonemes and symbols, leetspeek isn't difficult to translate.

Key points for learning leetspeek

  • Numbers are often used as letters. The term "leet" could be written as "1337," with "1" replacing the letter L, "3" posing as a backwards letter E, and "7" resembling the letter T. "0" (zero) will typically replace the letter "O."
  • Characters of similar appearance can be used to replace the letters they resemble. For example, "5" or even "$" can replace the letter S. Applying this style, the word "leetspeek" can be written as "133t5p33k" or even "!337$p34k," with "4" replacing the letter A.
t3h g4yz0r!!! LOL!!!!1!!!!!

Is Image Everything?


Hmmm....

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Truth-Seeking Blogosphere Bags Another MSM Trophy!

Partly because I've been busy and mostly because nothing super-solid has been available to comment upon, I haven't posted anything about the comments allegedly made by CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan in which he claimed that journalists were deliberately targeted for murder by the U.S. Military in Iraq.

Reports that he received great applause from the anti-American elements in the crowd at the Swiss summit he was participating were echoing around the blogosphere and diligently ignored by a MSM reeling from the fall of CBS/Dan Rather. Key to the story was the fact that no transcript and/or videotape of the panel was forthcoming, which fueled speculation that it was even worse for him and CNN than intitially imagined.

Well, he fell on his sword tonight, saying he was quitting to avoid tarnishing CNN's worthless credibility image, but still no tape of his REAL comments has surfaced.

The Kerry Spot on National Review Online has a great round-up leading to other round-ups, so dig in! It's a brand new day!

Monday, February 07, 2005

Catching up with recent current events....

Due to schedule conflicts, a whole lot of stuff went by unremarked upon when they happened, so I'm just going to give some snapshot comments on the last 10 days worth of happenings.

  • The Iraqi elections were an overwhelming success as the brave people of Iraq proved the liberal elites to be a herd of naysaying defeatists who'd rather see tyrants oppress their people forever than let Dubya have a success.
  • While the vote was wrapping up, the Feckless Crapweasel was on Meet The Press pronouncing failure and claiming to have supplied the Khmer Rouge with weapons which is either a total lie or admission of committing war crimes. If he'd been elected, it's a safe bet he would've postponed the elections to allow his masters in Europe and Al Queda to cheer on the further slaughter of American troops in order to confirm that we've got it coming. They used to shoot people like Kerry for treason. My how times change!
  • Compared to last year's snoozer, Dubya's State of the Union speech certainly SOUNDED nice, but any promises from the guy who didn't veto a single bill in his first term and exploded the deficit thru insane spending on bloating the Federal leviathan aren't worth much. Pile on the pointless obstructionist Dems and the Stupid Party who are cowed by the MSM and that's a recipe for nothing much to happen.
  • OTOH, if the best the Dems have is the thin, hypocritical gruel offered by Pelosi and Reid and intend to make Screamin' Howie Dean the DNC chair, the Stupid Party doesn't even need to do much to keep in control.
  • Super Bowl - Who cares other than Rush Limbaugh being able to call McNabb up to snicker?

Crybabies actually leaving America. Nation stronger as a result!

In today's Can'tMoveOn.Argh! Update, the NY Times reports some in U.S. voting with their feet in which the terminally infantile whiners who whimpered that they were going to flee the Jesus freaks of the Red States and run to Canada - the benign socialist Utopia to the North in which you have to step over the multitudes of homeless on the streets of downtown Toronto. (Even Detroit -a truly Third World city - has fewer homeless laying about.)

As I remarked back when Moby was filling his diaper in the aftermath of the Election, what's with these simpering twits? I don't recall a massive Republican Exodus to Canada during the Clinton Regimes reign of crime and security negligence and even if it had occured, would the Times have lavished as much attention to the concerns of those people as they're doing now?

Yep, didn't think so.

Here's some samples of the brilliant minds we're gonna lose along with some reality checkage...

Yet immigration lawyers say that Americans are not just making inquiries and that more are pursuing a move above the 49th parallel, fed up with a country they see drifting persistently to the right and abandoning the principles of tolerance, compassion and peaceful idealism they felt once defined the nation.

America is in no danger of emptying out. But even a small loss of population, many from a deep sense of political despair, is a significant event in the life of a nation that thinks of itself as a place to escape to. Firm numbers on potential immigrants are elusive.


Considering the hateful, fascist INTOLERANCE exhibited 24/7 by liberals, this is a hoot! What's more likely to occur: Red Staters flying to the Coasts to stop Gay Pride parades or Blue Staters trekking into "Jesusland" to demand that any mention of a power higher than them (read: God) be removed from public display?

Peaceful idealism?!? Listen you dirty hippies, it's the 21st Century, not Woodstock!!!

As for the significance of these pansies fleeing affecting our national soul - over 46,000 Americans die in TRANSPORTATION ACCIDENTS in a year, more than double what we're supposed to be concerned about in this article. Where's the angst about these people disappearing?!?

Oh, that's right...the Left doesn't care about life, just its agenda and power-mongering. Better dead than Dubya, right?

"I'm doing it," she said. "I don't want to participate in what this administration is doing here and around the world. Under Bush, the U.S. seems to be leading the pack as the world spirals down."

OK, the world's going to Hell in a bucket, but moving to the country next door to the supposed cause of All Bad Things is going to insulate her from the negative effects?!? How, babe? As for not participating - unless you've got a government gig, you already aren't - get over yourself!!!

"I'm originally from a poor, lead-mining town in Missouri, and I know a lot of the people there don't understand why I'm doing this," she said. "Even my family is pretty disappointed. And the fact is, it makes me pretty sad, too. But I just can't bear to pay taxes in the United States right now."

Wait until she gets a load of the Canadian tax structure, starting with the 15% effective sales tax on top of the higher prices due to the weaker Candian dollar! Socialist Utopias don't pay for themselves!

Mike Aves, 40, a financial planner in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been active in the Young Democrats, said he was finding it almost impossible from that distance to land a job in Canada. "I've told my wife, I'd be willing to take a step down, socioeconomically, to move from white-collar work to a blue-collar job, if it would get us to Canada," he said.

This guy is willing to be poor in the cold North, rather than live in a warm environment under a President he's too immature to ride out. Buh-bye, Little Bitch. Enjoy the snow!

Many of those interviewed said the idea of moving to Canada had been simmering in the backs of their minds for years, partly as a reaction to what they saw as a rightward drift in the United States and partly as a desire to live in a place they see as more tolerant, pacific and, yes, liberal. But for all, the re-election of Bush was decisive.

Pacific? Don't they mean "pacifist"? Why not move to Switzerland? Actually, if we unload all the wannabe socialists on Canada and keep the rugged individuals here, wouldn't that be a win-win for all?

"My wife and I have talked for a long time about perhaps retiring to a condo in downtown Vancouver," said Frederick Newmeyer, 61, a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle. "But the election was the tipping point."

This reveals how desperate for negativism the Time is - a couple who was thinking of moving to Canada for a long time decides to do it, but because they can blame it on the Election results, it's news?!?!?

When people in Cuba are willing to risk their lives to float a raft across 80 miles of open seas to get to America, we shouldn't be mourning those who will sell their Volvos and embark for life in a socialist country one damn bit! Screw 'em! Let those willing to be mature and productive in and let's get rid of the babies.

Win-win.